Hi. I'm Sarah. He's Kevin. The little ones are Hannah and Hudson. We're a family, blessed with our children via international adoption. Hannah Claire and Hudson Ray were lovingly cared for in Taiwan, placed into our arms on 12.29.08 and 6.13.12, and things haven't been quite the same since. Hallelujah!

"By adopting a child and helping them reach their potential, they help us reach ours. An adopted child is not an unwanted child; to the contrary. They are a child who was searched for, prayed for, cried for, begged for; received by arms that ached, making empty hearts full. Love is meant to be shared." - Author unknown

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We have a Canon EOS 7D. The lenses I work with include a 24-70mm f/2.8L, 85mm f/1.8, and 50mm f/1.8.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

It's been a rough week. Hannah caught a stomach bug Sunday night, threw up multiple times over 12 hours, and took two days to get back to her normal self. On Tuesday Hannah was clingy to Kevin and wouldn't cooperate with the speech therapist, so she left early. This is the girl who LOVES playing with the speech therapist's toys and usually sits on the therapist's lap during sessions.

With 30 minutes to go at work Tuesday night, waves of nausea came over me and I knew that I was next. I stuck it out at work, brought a plastic sack with me in the car just in case, and made it home just in time. No fun to have one's head in the toilet when a little girl is screaming her head off and a little dog is scratching at the bathroom door because they both want in to see their mama.

Kevin's been a saint, cleaning up after us, bringing Hannah Pedialyte and me glasses of water, and just taking good care of his girls. My mommy even brought me chicken and noodles tonight. Thank you. They were really yummy.

We decorated our Christmas tree tonight while Nana kept Hannah safe (and out of the way) for us. We didn't put up a Christmas tree last year because we knew that we'd be traveling to Taiwan over the holidays, and who wants to put down a Christmas tree when you're jet lagged and home with a new baby? Not us! You can tell that Kevin helped me decorate by the ornament that has the prime spot at the very tip top of the tree. Can you tell what it is???

When Nana brought Hannah home, we videotaped her reaction with hopes that she'd be excited and would oooh and ahhh at the lights. She likes looking at it, but she's a little afraid of it so far and doesn't want to go anywhere near it right now. Her ball rolled underneath the tree tonight and she cried until I fished it out. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that the Christmas tree trepidation won't last, and we'll find ornaments scattered about in a few days. I didn't put any of my favorite German glass ornaments on this year, except for the pickle. Gotta have a pickle!

Friday, November 20, 2009

Feels like we're hitting milestones every day, and there's no time to blog. I baked cookies a few days ago to try and teach the word "cookie." No one, not even Hannah, could refuse to say "cookie" for some hot gooey chocolate chip goodness right out of the oven. It was so much fun to have her say cookie over and over that I baked peanut butter cookies the next day for when the speech therapist came!

I've been working on animal sounds with Hannah for a long time, and they are clicking this week. Two weeks ago she said horse and would "nay." All of a sudden last night she will meow, woof, quack, and baa too! Fun times!

Today the decision was made to officially discharge Hannah from First Steps physical therapy but keep on with the speech therapy. Hannah is meeting 21 month milestones for gross motor skills, so she's pretty much caught up. We're continuing to work on balance skills by sitting on a ball and going up and down small steps, but it looks like we don't have any more major obstacles ahead of us.

Sunday, November 8, 2009

Taking a little break from blogging these days, but thinking a lot about being thankful. Our one year "Hannahversary" is drawing near. Thankful that Hannah can walk... and walks quickly when she has somewhere she wants to go. New words and understandings are revealed to us every day. The physical therapist is ready to discharge Hannah from First Steps. The speech therapist thinks that she's almost there, but would like to see her use some more action words such as "go" before Hannah is discharged.

I found my dream house for sale this week listed for 60K less than what someone built it for three years ago, and then the previous owners put a lot of bling into the house after it was built. Finished basement, custom blinds, bar in the basement, built in entertainment center, office with built in cabinetry all around the room, hardwood and tile flooring, and a new wooden swing set, slide, and sandbox for Hannah. We looked at it, loved it... and then did the math. Our saving the last few years paid off college loans and adoption related expenses. We should follow the original plan and save for a few more years before pursuing the dream home, but it is heartbreaking to let go of such a good deal, interest rates are still low, and it is exactly what we want. I'm trying to shake off "house fever" and work on just being thankful for what we have... but I still have that nagging feeling in my gut that we should be jumping at this opportunity.

We went for a walk in the park this afternoon after brunch. After picking up a leaf for each hand, Hannah did really well walking down the trail all by herself. Hidden roots in the leaves caused a few face plants, but she quickly picked herself "bup" and and kept on going.